Chapter 5

Chapter 5

On the day summer arrived in Qingxi Town, the river’s surface was covered in a thick layer of water lilies.

Wen He carried her newly made river lanterns to the ferry crossing, planning to sell them that evening. Unexpectedly, a sudden rainstorm broke out at dusk, and the crowds quickly dispersed. She was left alone, shielding several boxes of paper lanterns, drenched until even her eyelashes were dripping.

When Yan Guichen arrived with an umbrella, she was crouching awkwardly on the ground, using her body to block the rain from the outermost box.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” His voice was uncharacteristically stern.

Wen He looked up, her face covered in rain, yet her smile was like a stolen sliver of celestial light. “This is my food money for the next half month. Of course I have to protect it.”

Yan Guichen said no more. He simply bent down and carried the lantern boxes one by one under the eaves, not caring that his sleeves were completely soaked. Wen He stood to the side watching him, suddenly feeling a strange, inexplicable ache in her chest.

After the rain stopped, the two sat side by side on the steps of the ferry crossing.

A few scattered, unsold lanterns drifted on the water, reflecting in the center of the river like a slowly flowing belt of stars.

Wen He suddenly asked him, “Is Yan Guichen your real name?”

Yan Guichen froze for a moment.

“Why do you ask?”

“Because I’ve been dreaming about that name lately.” She reached out to touch the river water, her fingertips feeling slightly chilled. “In my dreams, someone is always calling me, but I can’t see his face. Only this name, over and over, like a nail driven into my ear.”

Yan Guichen could hardly breathe.

“Then in your dreams, what do you call yourself?”

Wen He frowned as she thought about it, then whispered, “It seems… someone calls me Ah Li.”

That name, “Ah Li,” was like a needle delayed by a thousand years, finally piercing through the hardest part of Yan Guichen’s heart.

He reached out and gently placed a Crimson Jade Pendant into her palm.

It was the heart-protecting jade that Fei Li had never let leave her side in the past.

“Keep it,” he said, his voice low and raspy. “It can ward off evil.”

Wen He looked up at him, her eyes reflecting the flickering light of the lanterns.

“Yan Guichen, you look like you’re about to cry.”

Yan Guichen managed a smile, though the corners of his eyes were truly red.

“I’ve just… been waiting for this day for too long.” So long that he had almost forgotten that living could be more agonizing than enduring punishment.

From then on, Wen He grew closer to him.

She would bring a basket of freshly steamed osmanthus cakes to find him, or stand at the entrance of the alley waiting for him when he returned to town from a medical visit. The town elders teased them, saying that a cold and detached man like Mr. Yan had finally met a girl who could lead him by the nose.

When Wen He heard this, her ears would turn red first, and then she would steal a glance at Yan Guichen.

Yan Guichen neither explained nor denied it.

He simply went about silently reviving the dying begonia in the courtyard and added a low couch beneath the window where she often sat. Those small matters he once found meaningless were now things he did willingly.

But the things he kept from her also grew in number.

People from the Celestial Realm had not stopped looking for him.

The Star Envoys under Siming appeared in his courtyard every few days, reminding him that the Demon Soul within Fei Li had not been cleansed. Once her past life awakened, the Three Realms would face another great disaster. The Star Envoys even hinted that if Yan Guichen were willing to personally sever this ill-fated connection, the Celestial Realm could show mercy and allow Wen He to live out her days peacefully until she died of old age.

Yan Guichen set down the medicine bowl and said only one word: “Get out.”

He had misplaced his trust once; he would never do so a second time.

But not trusting the Celestial Realm did not mean he dared to tell Wen He the truth.

He was afraid.

He was afraid she would find out who she was in her past life, afraid she would learn that those thousand years were not a slumber, but a time when he had personally sent her into the flames. He was even more afraid that after she knew, the way she looked at him would be like looking at a cold-blooded executioner.

And so, he suppressed all his fear into silence, only taking her to the mountaintop to watch the sea of stars on the night of the full moon.

Wen He leaned against his shoulder and suddenly asked softly, “What if I’m not the person I am now?”

“You are you.”

“I mean,” she looked up at him, her eyes filled with a touch of childish earnestness, “if I did very bad things before, or if I once hated someone deeply, would the current me still count as me?”

Yan Guichen was silent for a long time before he reached out to brush a stray lock of hair from her forehead.

“Yes,” he said. “Everything you have experienced will stay with you. But even if you have hated someone, you shouldn’t be left with only hate.”

Wen He stared at him for a good while, then suddenly smiled.

“Then I’ve made up my mind.”

“About what?”

“If the day comes when I remember everything, I’ll ask for the full story first before I decide whether or not to hate.”

Yan Guichen felt a sharp pang in his heart.

Because he knew that when that day truly arrived, she might not have the luxury of “asking for the full story.”